Wiring and Standalone ECM/PCM
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Teching In
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Wiring and Standalone ECM/PCM So I'm not super familiar with fuel injection wiring, nor am I really understanding of what I really have right now, but I need to make plans and see what I can do. I'm swapping an L96 6L80 or 90 (I haven't counted the splines, have not had good weather) trans out of a 2011 express van 2500 into an 87 Chevy R10. I have a full pull out with all of the front accessories, stock wiring, ECM, and fuse block. It was a cut and pull to quickly get it out and replaced. I have no idea about getting the electrical even started, let alone trying to get the vats removed (I didn't get the control module) or if I should just get a separate standalone ECU. The long run project here is to get this thing up to about 600ish horse (it always goes up, you understand these things) and I just need to get some sort of sense of what I need to clean up in the harness, and whether I should keep the stock PCM and get it unlocked, or just spend the money on an aftermarket that I can learn to tune. Thanks!
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Dec 2017
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From: Bossier City, Louisiana
You need to step back and consider what you are up against. Read a few books on LS swaps and definitely read up on swaps here in that area of the site. Plenty of people have done swaps on that era of Chevy trucks. Take a few notes on what others have done with their "square trucks". Being methodical and deliberate in your planning here will be less expensive and give you a better swap experience in the end - learn from the mistakes of others.
Keep the stock PCM and let somebody else tune out the right things. Not sure but you may have left behind the drive-by-wire throttle pedal. Learning how to tune things yourself is neither easy or fast and people have really messed up their engines striking out on their own. The learning curve is steep and can be extremely expensive.
Rick
Keep the stock PCM and let somebody else tune out the right things. Not sure but you may have left behind the drive-by-wire throttle pedal. Learning how to tune things yourself is neither easy or fast and people have really messed up their engines striking out on their own. The learning curve is steep and can be extremely expensive.
Rick
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The good news: there is more information out there about the L96 than when I started last year. The bad news: there still isn't much info.
So. The engine and transmission you got are awesome. We have a really good combination of Gen IV parts. LS3 heads, VVT but not AFM/DOD, best intake, good internals etc. The bad news is, the E78 ECM is a bit of a mystery to people. It uses torque management, similar to a Gen V. Is that the ECM you have? For $750 you can get a brand new harness. For around $450 you can have someone turn that harness into a 4 wire hookup. That is likely your best option. I'm trying to do it myself and honestly it is a lot of work following wiring diagrams and trying to work out exactly what needs to get hooked up and where.
600ish HP is a lot without a turbo. With a turbo, easy. Without, doable but it won't last long and will be a pig to drive. Decide if you are going to go turbo now. It impacts how you setup your fuel system, and what you do to the engine before you get it in your R10 (which should have the correct fuel tanks thankfully - do you know if your engine has TBI?)
As bombardier said, start reading. Keep reading. You need to absorb a lot of information before you get too far along.
Cheers!
So. The engine and transmission you got are awesome. We have a really good combination of Gen IV parts. LS3 heads, VVT but not AFM/DOD, best intake, good internals etc. The bad news is, the E78 ECM is a bit of a mystery to people. It uses torque management, similar to a Gen V. Is that the ECM you have? For $750 you can get a brand new harness. For around $450 you can have someone turn that harness into a 4 wire hookup. That is likely your best option. I'm trying to do it myself and honestly it is a lot of work following wiring diagrams and trying to work out exactly what needs to get hooked up and where.
600ish HP is a lot without a turbo. With a turbo, easy. Without, doable but it won't last long and will be a pig to drive. Decide if you are going to go turbo now. It impacts how you setup your fuel system, and what you do to the engine before you get it in your R10 (which should have the correct fuel tanks thankfully - do you know if your engine has TBI?)
As bombardier said, start reading. Keep reading. You need to absorb a lot of information before you get too far along.
Cheers!
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Teching In
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Turns out I knew very little of the wiring that was with the combo itself, Brandon over at lt1swap had some diagrams from an 2010-11 L99, and the wiring is really similar, I took what was in that, and it fit perfectly with the pin out of the e78 ecm (which unfortunately I have). Being that money is always a problem, I can't go out and buy a harness, and I've been using this as a learning project. The essentials of the harness I got were the same as the L99 pin out that I have, I just need to figure out where to wire the Low Reference, and all of that stuff he labeled on his pinout to a different place (I'll figure it out some day). Also being that I'm only 17, the amount of time I have for this project is limited by snow, school, and work when I can get there, so I've been working on the harness during my shop classes. The base tuning and vats removal I can get done by the same guy that runs the lt1swap site, but as far as tuning goes, there actually isn't anyone that I've found around here that does tuning. Northern Minnesota seems desolate enough, but I've been working hard on trying to find someone that has knowledge, and the tools to do tuning. Thank you both for your input!
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The 6L90 actually has it's own tcm on the trans as far as I remember when I took the harness off, but getting it to work with a standalone would've been a hassle.
9 Second Club
Joined: Nov 2003
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From: Norn Iron
Nobody makes a standalone for the 6L90, I've searched plenty and every possible option, came to a dead end.
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Teching In
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Interesting. Good thing I didn't get a standalone before consulting forums. Know anyone into square body wiring? I got a bunch of it to do, and the electrical diagrams are hard to read and understand.
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Thread Starter
Teching In
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I have an 87 R10 and I need to figure out where to wire up my ignition, power, and the sorts. I thought I saw something in the bulkhead wiring on that. I know the 87's are kinda weird because they started fuel injection that year.
to get it to run, there's four big like 10awg wires all in a vertical row coming from the engine side bulkhead. two are battery 12v, one is a keyed 12v (from the HEI plug) and the purple one is your starter
combine the two 12v battery/alt wires with a 30a fuse on the ign side of the join and connect that to your 12v battery power from your stand alone harness
the HEI wire goes to your key-on power
and the purple goes to your starter wire in your harness if you have one, if not it goes ...well...to the starter
combine the two 12v battery/alt wires with a 30a fuse on the ign side of the join and connect that to your 12v battery power from your stand alone harness
the HEI wire goes to your key-on power
and the purple goes to your starter wire in your harness if you have one, if not it goes ...well...to the starter
Teching In
Joined: Sep 2018
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From: minnesota
hey truckdoug i talked with you and pete a while back on one of the opensource flash threads and i didnt want clutter things up over there with something off topic. so heres where im at, im a fellow squarebody enthusiast and i purchased a 6.0 out of a 2004 yukon denali, its a p59, im in the works towards getting it standalone controlled in my 1986 k20. i purchased a allpro usb, a laptop, downloaded the free version of tunerpro. i need to build a benchtop harness for flashing. i was hoping you could recommend what parts and pieces i should collect to build with. AND where the heck does a guy find pinout information. i know i'll need a 12volt power supply but what amp range. i also have to rob a obd diag connector off something. any input appreciated. im running out of hair to pull from my head haha
pcm connector from a scrap harness, serial ports from junkyard cars and an old phone charger 12v 1A for power.
be sure and add a switch for the pin going to "key" power on the pcm from the power supply. might as well add a second serial port right from the get go if you're gonna be playing with pcm hammer
pin outs I got from the sloppy wiki page
be sure and add a switch for the pin going to "key" power on the pcm from the power supply. might as well add a second serial port right from the get go if you're gonna be playing with pcm hammer
pin outs I got from the sloppy wiki page
Teching In
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From: minnesota
lifesaver. i can kind of imagine what this thing needs to look like now but you lost me with the multiple serial ports.. just wire them in series? my allpro will be hooked into one, do i need another cord of sorts for the hammer to serial? picture would do wonders. i doubt a schematic exists for this lol
series is fine, up to like ten ports or something crazy. sometimes you end up with another tool plugged in to "spy" on the terminal to see whats going on and troubleshoot any communication problems
remember all that pcm hammer/ls droid stuff is like raw, experimental software. it's gonna need lots of beta testing.
remember all that pcm hammer/ls droid stuff is like raw, experimental software. it's gonna need lots of beta testing.
Teching In
Joined: Sep 2018
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From: minnesota
i just find all this fascinating, i feel like if someone was able to figure out you can hook up ten serial ports before you get "problems" like some sort of interference or voltage drop, they were trying to do something fun like datalog or drive an aftermarket dash. i realize im way behind the times as far as tuning goes and im not very good with computer language either but the only way im going to catch up and play along is simply through my love of cars and the community surrounding. it amazes me how its evolved to this and im grateful for people like yourself chippin in to educate others. ive been following those threads that pete and nsfw are workin on and i can tell theyve been involved in the game since the early days. extremely knowledgeable. i just try not to annoy anybody and chip away at it as a hobby
yeah man it's all good thats how we learn. no one is born knowing any of this stuff. we teach each other. I try and help you like how pete helped me. then you help the next guy and so on and so on
TECH Regular
Joined: Oct 2011
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THE L96 IS AN LY6 WITH LARGER FLEX FUEL INJECTORS , so I am pretty sure you can get an e38 computer , harness , and ly6 injectors and go that route , lots of those available , of coarse even the flexfuel [larger injectors ] are not going to support 600 hp , id keep the ly6 injectors stock , get it running and driving , and then decap the injectors and turbo , 5oo is a more reasonable number , but you will be happy with the stock 375
Sloppy mechanics , also known as denmah , has an almost foolproof 500 hp kit at turbosforless , formaly known as vsracing ,
Sloppy mechanics , also known as denmah , has an almost foolproof 500 hp kit at turbosforless , formaly known as vsracing ,
Last edited by ijimmy; Dec 26, 2018 at 12:46 PM.
Thread Starter
Teching In
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North of Virginia. I don't know of anyone north of the Cities that does anything close to this, so getting people to talk to in person is next to impossible.